How to begin with Ruby on Rails using Windows

Question

I've tried downloading the Rails package and installing it on Windows, but have no idea to make it work.

I have had some experience with this commbination:

• PHP 4.x + 5.x (Windows)
• LIGHTTPD (Windows)
• Connecting to a Firebird Database (Windows)

Can anybody enlighten me?

Answer 1

Either try Instant Rails, which hasn't been updated in a while. Or try this tutorial and install everything yourself: http://beans.seartipy.com/2008/06/09/setting-up-rails-development-environment-on-windows-vistaxp/

Answer 2

If you're really beginning and have no special attachment to the stuff you've downloaded, try getting the latest Netbeans (v6.1) which comes with Ruby and Rails build in. Its massively simple to install and get running. (A double click install). Then, once you've done that do a "File > New Project > Ruby > Ruby On Rails Application", press F6 and you'll be looking at the start page of your first Rails App.

To get to grips with it all, I'd suggest Sang Shin's free Ruby On Rails course. Its been running a while, but its free, is hands on, has some excellent material, and covers a great deal. I'm doing it and have learned a lot about Rails and Ruby also.

HTH

Answer 3

I use Heroku this is the Signup page for all my Rails Development

You don't have to install or set up anything and you are up and running Fast.

Also, this is a good tutorial for setting up Instant Rails on Vista:

Answer 4

I've gotten Rails up and running on Windows just following the instructions on the RoR website. To paraphrase:

1. Download Ruby Windows installer from here. I recommend this one.
2. Execute the .exe [ruby186-26.exe]
3. Verify your Windows environment variables now includes C:\ruby\bin in the PATH variable. (My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables). If it's not there, add it.
4. Download Ruby Gems from here.
5. Extract the zip [rubygems-1.3.0.zip] to a temporary directory.
6. Open a command window and cd to the temp directory.
7. Type ruby setup.rb in the command window and hit enter.
8. After that from the command window type gem install rails
9. Boom! You have rails on windows.

I've heard good things about Instant Rails I've avoided it though. I highly recommend RadRails for Eclipse. I do all my RoR development in Windows using RadRails to connect to a MySQL database.

Answer 5

These are the best tutorials that I have seen for setting up rails on Windows.

Xp: http://www.buildingwebapps.com/articles/6467-setting-up-rails-on-windows-xp
Vista: http://www.buildingwebapps.com/articles/6491-setting-up-rails-on-windows-vista

Answer 6

I used this tutorial just yesterday and it worked well. BUT you need to install RubyGems yourself, after installing Ruby and before installing Rails. I found this guide helpful for RubyGems installation.

I was not able to use an environment variable to set up the http proxy; instead I must pass that as a param on the CL when installing gems (-p [myproxy].[mysite]:[port])

Answer 7

You should really consider just install a Virtual Machine using VMWare if possible. You can still get start with Windows, but you could come across a lot of hiccups on various packages you want to use. I was from Windows too... now I switched myself to a mac and never looked back....

The point is, Ruby runs just a lot better on any POSIX other than using Windows, so its better not to try forcing anything suppose to work properly on one platform on another one. Practically, you will NEVER consider hosting a rails application in Windows (similarly, I doubted if you should ever consider hosting a PHP app in Windows too... you are just putting more cost to hurt your own feet by doing so...)

Another possibility is try to get Ubuntu setup on a USB memory/ hard drive and boot using that when you want to play Rails, slightly problematic, but better performance.

NetBeans as suggested as beginner IDE is good. Although if you get start properly with a good book (Pragmatic defacto Rails book 3rd edition is a good choice, you will never put that one down even after so long as the references are just too useful). Alternatively Rails Guide is something you shouldn't miss.

Answer 8

Late to the party, but could you try this tutorial instead?

Getting Started with Rails and MySQL

Two observations:

1. --source http://gems.rubyinstaller.org is no longer needed. remove that part from the command
2. Install latest RC1 for either 1.9.1 or 1.8.6 from here

Hope that helps

Answer 9

Here's some tools that have helped me in Windows for general RoR development

TextMate-like editor: http://www.e-texteditor.com/ Multi-tab SSH client: http://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/index.html Full featured UNIX shell (including git): http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/

Answer 10

I just followed this tutorial, and it worked great the first time, and gives steps to take if you encounter common errors. I HIGHLY recommend it. it's one of the best tutorials I've ever gone through. I'm an ASP .NET guy, and I had no trouble.

Answer 11

My suggestion is to begin with a microframework. Something like Sinatra. You can move to Rails / Merb afterwards.